[Ambassadors] Re: FAD @ LFNW

[Larry Cafiero]

Clint sums it up very eloquently -- I can't add anything to that. On the
"triage" aspect, I could have done better on that -- that was my role -- but
I was juggling a couple of things at once and couldn't give any of the
things I was doing the attention they individually deserved.

I'm trying to get to a point where I can write a final blog item about LFNW
-- a lot of this thing called "life" is getting in the way -- where I'll
address several issues.

I'll be contributing to the FAD how-to wiki page.

Larry Cafiero

On Sat, May 2, 2009 at 11:56 AM, Clint Savage <herlo1 at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> I probably should have blogged more about the FAD.  I think it went
> pretty swell.  Larry is quite the Advocate and presenter, probably
> comes from dealing with classrooms full of students on a regular
> basis.
>
> As far as the success of this FAD, I would say that it didn't match up
> to what I wanted to do.  However, I feel there were a lot of people in
> the room who wanted to learn more about Fedora.  I did feel like we
> were being utilized more to ask questions than actually get a task
> done.
>
> More to this point, I think the fact that we had such a big Fedora
> presence this year was an exciting thing for folks in the Northwest.
> My opinion is that if we come back next year, we'll get a similar
> response and a few of the folks who attended our FAD this year will
> help us to organize and get goals done. I will say that there needs to
> be a couple things at every FAD.   Even though we've only done 2, I
> can see similarities between SCALE and LFNW.
>
> First is that we need a representative (or two) to sit at the entrance
> and answer questions.  Something like 'Ask a Fedoran' at a small table
> right near the door.  This is much like triage.  If people come to
> work on an activity that we've advertised, they'll get them inside and
> working with someone who's in charge of that particular activity.
> This is the key and part of what keeps us focused.
>
> Secondly, I think we need to have a design of what we're there to
> accomplish.  At SCaLE, we had a much better idea of what was to be
> accomplished.  We went to task on it and were able to complete a few
> things.  This was good and with the triage person, we really could've
> gotten more done.  Thus a learning experience.  At LFNW, it felt more
> like we were scattered, didn't really have any idea of what we were
> going to work on until we showed up and because of that, we didn't
> really accomplish much at all other than helping folks with their
> fedora problems.
>
> In both cases (SCaLE and LFNW) I have found that we were well received
> and that people were excited to see our presence.  We've made a great
> impact on these communities.  However, with the two improvements I've
> mentioned, I feel we could really help these communities *and* get a
> few things done.  I don't think there is a way to avoid talking with
> the public at a FAD, we should be welcoming them.  The key here is
> management of people and getting them where they want to be quickly
> and efficiently.  Thus, I am suggesting that any FAD held alongside a
> larger event *must* have defined people and goals.
>
> I hope this feedback helps overall.  Karsten and I have talked at
> length about much of this and we've continually been working on the
> 'How to organize a FAD'[1] page on the wiki.  I think that's the best
> place to continue to focus our efforts and improve the FAD experience.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Clint
>
> 1 - https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_organize_a_FAD
>
> --
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>
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